Leslie Overnight is the result of a larger project, Opolis, at the Flux Factory in Queens. A group of artists constructed individual beuildings out of paper and cardboard. Visitors walk among the buildings, peering into the windows to follow the story within.
Above you can see the structure of the building. In the comic, different versions of Leslie creep around the building. To make the comic, Jay photographed each scene and assembled them in order. In this story, Leslie is a bit of a kook. At one point, he even breaks out the tin foil hat.
Jay doesn’t simply make a static image of Leslie and move him around; there must be dozens of cutout Leslie figures to fit in with different scenes. If you sit down and really look at this comic, you realize just how much work he has done to pull this off. Jay has drawn and cut out dozens of Leslies, multiples of the security guard character, and the various word balloons. He then had to place the cutouts correctly for each panel before taking a photo of each. Multiply this by 30 pages.
The finished product is much richer than it sounds. The cardboard scenery kind of adds to the realism, as weird as that sounds. The props have more fullness than something merely drawn. As Leslie floats through each panel, the office desks, cubicle walls, and other details create a stage prop feeling.
The cover of Leslie Overnight is striking. First, it’s larger than your standard mini-comic, but second the close up image of Leslie’s face is unforgettable and a little disturbing. Jay did a fantastic job on the screen printing as well.
I don’t see a price on this, but according to Jay’s website it’s $4. You can read the comic on his website, but take it from me; this is a nice one to hold in your hands. Leslie Overnight is unique and charming. It reminds me why I love mini-comics.
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